Claremont man in struggle with intruder

January 22 2013 at 08:53am

INLSAWHISKEY SAVES THE DAY: Claremont resident Dennis van den Bergs says his cat alerted him to an intruder. During the confrontation he sustained minor stab wounds to his hand and foot, but beat off the intruder with a baseball bat. Photo: Jeffrey Abrahams

Barbara Maregele

CLAREMONT resident Dennis van den Berg knew something was wrong when his cat Whiskey made an unusual moaning sound and jumped on to the back windowsill of his Roosenveld Street home yesterday.

The 44-year-old was relaxing alone about 12.45pm when a man entered through his back door and stabbed him.

While Van den Berg had minor stab wounds, it was believed that his attacker who managed to escape, may not have been as lucky.

Van den Berg said he was relaxing in his lounge when his cat jumped on to the windowsill.

“I knew something was happening so I got up from the couch. I saw a man walk past the window towards my kitchen door which was open. I got a shock and I could see he was shocked to see me there too. I asked him what he wanted and he just ran towards me and attacked me,” he said.

Van der Berg said he was holding a baseball bat which he hangs behind his front door to ward off intruders.

“My baseball club was in my right hand. I didn’t see if he had anything so when he came at me I put my hand out and that’s when the knife went under my fingernail. I hit the guy with the club on his head and we struggled for a while. He landed on the floor and tried to stab me on the foot and then tried to cut my tendon,” he said.

A spray of blood across his kitchen cupboards and floor with broken pot plants in the garden was evidence of the violent scuffle between Van den Berg and his attacker.

“By the time I got to my feet again, the guy had jumped over my wall and ran up the road. He must have got into a car or hid near one of the houses because the blood trail from my house stops over the road.

“I pressed the alarm panic button immediately. I didn’t really get a good look at the guy, but I remember he was much taller than me wearing blue gloves, a bright blue shirt and he had a bit of a stubble,” Van den Berg said.

He said he was told that an elderly woman had been tied up in her home up the road while her house was ransacked a week earlier.

“My neighbours put up an electrical fence recently and their car was still broken into. I have a high wall and my car was in the driveway, but this guy still took the chance. It’s difficult to say who doesn’t belong in the area because these guys are well dressed,” he said.

In October Anzunette du Plessis, 33, was stabbed and her throat slit in her Buchanan Street home.

Moegamat Salie, 31, of Mitchells Plain, along with co-accused Warren van Rooyen, 28, and Dudley Boesak, 32 have appeared in court after police allegedly caught them an hour later pushing a trolley with a flat screen TV and three laptops on it.